Recipients › Maine › Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Recipient organisation · UEI DRTAEZWWJHM8
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
USAspending caveat. Figures are obligations reported by federal agencies to USAspending.gov, not payments. In USAspending's words: "An outlay occurs when federal money is actually paid out, not just promised to be paid ('obligated')." "Every agency has a Senior Accountable Official who must officially certify that the quarterly financial data submitted by their agency is accurate and complete." "If there are any discrepancies in procurement data, FPDS is the authoritative source." Contract data for the Department of Defense and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is published with a 90-day delay. Data loaded 30 Sep 2026. View the USAspending recipient profile.
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, of East Boothbay, ME, was obligated $40M in federal awards across the 4 fiscal years in which it reached the $1.0M listing floor (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
In FY2026, the most recent complete fiscal year, obligations were $5.5M, with contracts under the listing floor.
That is down 37% on FY2025 ($8.7M).
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences ranks 54 of 197 listed organisations located in ME by five-year obligations, and 11,236 of 30,989 nationally.
Its $1.0M-plus awards since FY2023 came from National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce and Department of Energy: 5 awards worth $27M in total award value.
Obligations by fiscal year contracts vs assistance
| Fiscal year | All obligations | Contracts | Assistance | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | $17,218,586 | under $1.0M | $17,218,586 | — |
| FY2024 | $8,884,575 | under $1.0M | $8,884,575 | -48% |
| FY2025 | $8,692,764 | under $1.0M | $8,692,764 | -2% |
| FY2026 | $5,459,651 | under $1.0M | $5,459,651 | -37% |
| FY2027 to date | under $1.0M | — | — | — |
A fiscal year runs 1 October to 30 September. "Contracts" are procurement award types A–D; "assistance" is everything else (grants, direct payments, loan subsidy cost, insurance, other). The contracts column is listed only where contract obligations alone reached $1.0M; the assistance figure is the remainder and may therefore include up to $1.0M of contracts.
Compared with its state and the largest recipients five listed years
| Measure | This organisation | Largest in ME | Largest nationally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five-year obligations (listed years) | $40M | $17B | $416B |
| FY2026 obligations | $5.5M | $4.7B | $118B |
| Contracts, five years | under $1.0M | under $1.0M | $94B |
| Assistance, five years | $40M | $17B | $416B |
| Rank by five-year obligations | 11,236 of 30,989 | 1 of 197 in ME | 1 |
Largest in state: Health and Human Services, Maine Department of. Largest nationally: Health Care Services, California Department of. Rankings count organisations located in the state, by the sum of their listed fiscal years.
Awarding agencies $1.0M+ awards since FY2023
| # | Agency | Awards | Award value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Science Foundation | 3 | $13M | 46% |
| 2 | Department of Commerce | 1 | $12M | 45% |
| 3 | Department of Energy | 1 | $2.3M | 8% |
Assistance programs listings
Places of performance $1.0M+ awards
Counties: Lincoln County, ME $27M
Largest awards begun since FY2023
| Awarding agency | Type | Industry or program | Award value | Begun | Place | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of CommerceNational Institute of Standards and Technology | GrantProject Grant (B) | 11.617 Congressionally-Identified Projects | $12M | 8 Aug 2023 | ME | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.083 Integrative Activities | $5.9M | 19 Aug 2024 | ME | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 47.084 NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships | $4.0M | 21 May 2025 | ME | USAspending |
| National Science Foundation | GrantProject Grant (B) | 47.050 Geosciences | $2.7M | 18 Jul 2025 | ME | USAspending |
| Department of Energy | GrantCooperative Agreement (B) | 81.135 Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy | $2.3M | 18 Mar 2024 | ME | USAspending |
Award value is the amount obligated to the award to date as USAspending reports it. Descriptions below are USAspending's text, unedited and truncated; those that appear to name a person are withheld.
- $12M, Department of Commerce, 8 Aug 2023: PURPOSE: BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES SEEKS A $12,202,740 GRANT FOR THE INNOVATION AND EDUCATION WING PROJECT, EXPANDING THE MAIN LABORATORY BUILDING I
- $5.9M, National Science Foundation, 19 Aug 2024: E-RISE RII: MAINE ALGAL RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACCELERATOR -MATERIALS FROM MACROALGAE ONE CAN SEE AND MICROALGAE THAT ONE CANNOT SEE ARE FOUND IN CONSUMER
- $4.0M, National Science Foundation, 21 May 2025: NSF CONVERGENCE ACCELERATOR REAL-WORLD CHEMICAL SENSING APPLICATIONS: INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO MONITOR METHANE EMISSIONS FROM LIVESTOCK USING AN ADVANCED GRAVIMET
- $2.7M, National Science Foundation, 18 Jul 2025: EQUIPMENT: EQUIPMENT: MRI: TRACK 2, ACQUISITION OF A HIGH-THROUGHPUT WORKFLOW FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SINGLE CELL GENOMICS -A SINGLE CELL IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL UNIT
- $2.3M, Department of Energy, 18 Mar 2024: NEW COMPETITIVE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES, DE-FOA-0002989 ((SEA CO2) CONTROL #2989-1519 PROJECT TITLE: ''MONITORING, REPO
Questions and answers
How much federal money does Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences receive?
$40M in award obligations over the fiscal years it is listed for (FY2023: $17M; FY2024: $8.9M; FY2025: $8.7M; FY2026: $5.5M). Years not listed were under the $1.0M floor. Obligations are binding commitments, not payments made.
Which agencies award to Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences?
By the value of $1.0M-plus awards begun since FY2023: National Science Foundation ($13M), Department of Commerce ($12M) and Department of Energy ($2.3M).
What is the money for?
Assistance falls under Congressionally-Identified Projects (11.617), Integrative Activities (47.083) and NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (47.084).
Where is the work performed?
Primary places of performance for its larger awards: ME ($27M).
Is Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences a large federal recipient?
It ranks 11,236 of 30,989 organisations on this site by five-year obligations and 54 of 197 located in ME. The site covers organisations with at least $1.0M in a fiscal year; individuals are excluded.
Where does this data come from?
USAspending.gov (U.S. Treasury), award transactions as loaded on 30 Sep 2026; fiscal-year totals via the spending-by-category endpoint and award lists via the award search endpoint. The USAspending recipient profile is the authoritative record.
Provenance
Source: USAspending.gov API v2 (U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service), CC0. Fiscal-year obligations from the spending-by-category recipient ranking by recipient state (listing floor $1.0M per year); awards from the award search endpoint (new awards of $1.0M or more by base obligation date); parent and business categories from the recipient profile where fetched. Closed fiscal years are snapshots taken after year end; FY2027 is refreshed on each build. Data loaded by USAspending on 30 Sep 2026. Individuals and sole proprietors are excluded at ingest. Errors in processing are corrected at the next build; see corrections and the methodology.